Never Too Young

by koolkame

At a paranormal convention a team of young superheroes will do battle with their foes for possession of a powerful artifact that could destroy everything they love. Start of the Never Too Young Crossover Universe.

1. Kids These Days

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or the series and books they come from. This a nonprofit work and there is no reason to sue. If you want to hire me, now...

Summary: (Danny Phantom/The Life and Times of Juniper Lee/Ben 10/W.I.T.C.H./American Dragon Xover) At a paranormal convention a gathering of young heroes will meet and do battle with their fiercest foes for possession of a powerful artifact. Part (and start) of the Never Too Young Crossover Universe "Summer of Justice" arc.

Author's Note: Welcome to the beginning of a whole new universe!

Fanfiction crossover universe, that is. I'd love to tell you loads about it, but I'm too tired from the writing, to be honest. Lazy butt... I'll just say that I was inspired by Vathara's Urban Legends series CU, a cool crossover of science-fiction shows both live-action and animated and definitely worth checking out as soon as you get tired of the 'kame. I'm hard on myself, I know.

This is AU, but not totally out there AU where everyone's in the Victorian time period and talking funny; you've read those before, admit it. Just think of NTY as a separate universe where all the shows exist in one world.

The time frame is (in Bold, no less): W.I.T.C.H. post-season two, Danny Phantom post-Urban Jungle, Juniper Lee post-season three, Ben 10 post-season three, and American Dragon Jake Long post-season two. Expect spoilers up to these points and don't come crying to me if I give something away. If this story is well-received (or even if it's not), I already have sequels in the works. Universe, baby, universe.

I'm working on a prequel story, "Guardians and Protectors" (Bold and Italicised, boo-yah!) that explains Juniper Lee's back-story with the W.I.T.C.H. girls. Also, I have a W.I.T.C.H./Avatar: The Last Airbender fic that is another prequel for "NTY", an American Dragon crossover with Gargoyles/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that is another prequel and I'm still working on my W.I.T.C.H. fics. See why I'm tired?

"Nothing's Gonna Stand In Our Way" is by Spectre General (aka Kick Axe) and featured on the Tranformers: The Movie soundtrack. Just seemed appropriate. The Nietzsche quote is from Wikiquote which is just an awesome place for quote-mongers like me. Viva la Wiki!

This chapter has been edited and reloaded for grammar changes and fleshing out some back-stories. Little has changed and does not overly affect the story enough to require re-reading.

The fortunate ones
To be fast and free and young
I want to count myself among
The fortunate ones

We won't be denied.

This generations
With fire in our eyes
Strong are the ties that bind us
We don't need no alibis

We've waited all our lives and now we know our time has come
Nothing's gonna stand in our way
Not tonight!

"Nothing's Gonna Stand In Our Way" by Spectre General

---

But by my love and hope I beseech you: Do not throw away the hero in your soul! Hold holy your highest hope! - Friedrich Nietzsche

Chapter One: Kids These Days With their Rap Music and Superpowers...

---

Her scream was soul-rending, pouring forth heartache like a flood of tears from a parade of mourners. It was the cry of those who witnessed atrocities done to a loved one, knowing that they were too late to intervene. All that pain, all the horror, compressed into a single name.

"Bearbert!" Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton clasped her hands to the sides of her face in perfect imitation of the "Scream" painting as she beheld the damage wrought by her soon-to-be-full-ghost little brother, Daniel "Phantom" Fenton. "What have you done to him!"

"Oh, come on, Jazz," Danny said in a voice too sincerely sweet to be real. It didn't help that he was grinning like the fox that had cleared out the chicken house buffet-style with a side of mashed potatoes and coleslaw. "I thought that Bearbert Einstein needed a new look." He held up the stuffed bear up like a proud father, or more accurately, Dr. Frankenstein showing off "Franky Junior".

Jazz's favorite stuffed animal now sported a black jumpsuit with white gloves and boots, the stylized initial "D" on his chest. That wouldn't have been so bad, except that the toy also had a shock of white hair super-glued onto its head in addition to its "natural" Albert Einstein-esque hairpiece. That was terrible enough, but somehow Danny had covered Bearbert's "wittle" paws in small globes of their parent's newest invention, a self-hardening green foam used for trapping ghosts. It gave the impression that the bear, who Jazz "knew" would never hurt anyone, was firing ectoplasmic energy blasts at random.

Danny held the arms up until Bearbert was "aiming" at Jazz and made blasting noises with his mouth. He chuckled at his own "cleverness" as Jazz's face began to match her red hair. Danny stopped laughing as he inspected "Bearbert Phantom," with an exaggerated look of disappointment. "I know, I know... he doesn't have green eyes. The hobby shop didn't have them in that color and the jumpsuit took so long to make... tell you what, maybe we can find some in Heatherfield? It's a big city, they probably..."

"You... are... dead!" Jazz lunged at him, ready to give Bearbert his green-glowing eyes. She was stopped, however, by a feeling in her chest that pressed against her heart. It wasn't her conscience; it was her seatbelt. Her inner child was prepared to unbuckle her safety device and commit fratricide but her outer adult kept her in check. She glared at Danny. "When this RV stops, I'm going to become an only child."

The other two occupants in the back of the Fenton RV were enjoying the show and silently thankful that they possessed no siblings. Samantha "Sam" Manson and Tuckard "The Tuckster" Foley sat calmly as they watched the pre-game show for what would happen at the end of the road trip; "Sudden Death" was likely to be the theme. Sam leaned toward Tucker and said, "I'll betcha a Reese's Big Cup that it goes for five minutes."

Tucker pshawed. "Hey, I know my dawg. I say three."

Danny looked at them as he dangled Bearbert Phantom just out of Jazz's reach. "Hey, what do you guys mean, minutes? Aren't you forgetting that I have...," Danny looked at his parents warily. "...special talents?"

"Yeah, he's right," Sam admitted as she gestured to the ghost-fighting equipment that was stowed all around them. "Thirty seconds before Jazz kicks his butt, and that's my final."

"...I say fifteen. And in case it's longer, we'll go by how long until he cries 'Uncle!'"

"Hey!" While Danny was distracted by their disturbing lack of faith in him, Jazz snatched Bearbert away from him. She held the bear close to her as if she were comforting it.

"It's okay, Bearbert, I don't think any less of you," Jazz said as she consoled the bear. Realizing what she was doing, she morphed back into an outraged woman-child and said to Danny, "That was my property you defaced, dork!"

"'Defaced'? I think he looks great!" Danny crossed his arms behind his head and smiled at Jazz. "Besides, all the kids love Danny Phantom."

From the front of the RV Danny and Jazz's father snorted in disgust. "Kids treating ghosts like rock stars? Why don't they just worship Satan while they're at it?" Jack Fenton grumbled as he slurped cola out of his Fenton Drinking Hat™.

"Dad, Satan went out with the nineties," Danny said in a serious voice, though his twinkling crystal-blue eyes spoke differently. "Same with boy bands. Coincidence? I think not." The other teens laughed at this, Jazz quickly snapping back to Angry Older Sister Mode when she was done.

To lend credence to her claims of property damage, she took the evidence to a higher power: the Supreme Court of Mom. "Mother, look what Danny did to Bearbert!"

Maddie Fenton turned in her place in the passenger's seat and examined the bear. "Well, I must admit I'm not comfortable about patterning Bearbert after the Ghost Boy, but he does look rather adorable with that hair. It sort of looks like Danny's... hey, is that Fenton Ghost Lock Foam™ on his wittle paws? Oh, Danny, isn't that a little extreme?"

Danny shrugged a if it made perfect sense. "Think of it as a safety precaution. If a ghost tries to use Bearbert to wreak havoc upon the mortal world, the Foam'll stop them."

Jazz snorted. "Just cause it happened last Christmas doesn't mean it'll happen again."

"Maybe," Danny agreed. "Still, we should play it safe. Tell you what, Jazz, I'll put a globe of FGLF on your head, just in case." Maddie, realizing that the argument wasn't becoming serious, turned back to the front and began talking to her husband about the convention they were attending.

Jazz looked at her brother with a withering gaze. "Please, Danny. I really doubt that any practical purpose can be served by destroying Bearbert."

Danny smiled and shook his head. "You're too dramatic, Jazz. He's fine; the hair'll come off in soapy water and the Foam can be broken up with a hammer. I just had a..." He searched for a word. "...urge. Couldn't help myself. As your little brother, I am honor-bound to act upon these urges whenever they occur. Besides," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "Bearbert is sort of a... prototype."

This time he actually sounded serious. Jazz's lifted one eyebrow questioningly. "Prototype?"

"Yep." Danny dug around in his pocket. "Remember that flour bag-sitting service Tucker ran? Well, we figure that with Danny Phantom being, uh, mostly popular with the townspeople, we could make some college fund money by selling these." He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to his sister, giving their parents a look out of the corner of his eye to indicate that they were not meant to see whatever it was.

Jazz looked at him suspiciously, than inspected the sheet of paper. On it was a sketch of a teddy bear not unlike Bearbert Einstein in his new garb. This bear was a little sleeker than Bearbert and lacked the Einstein hairstyle; in fact, it looked like a bear version of Danny Phantom. Jazz looked up at her brother with a surprised look. "You're gonna sell stuffed animals?"

"You got it! I got the idea when I was, uh, renovating Bearbert. Tuck's already figured up the costs and we're just waiting for the bear heads to arrive. "

"But... you can't sew."

"Don't have to. Tuck programmed one of those new model sewing machines to do everything for us. All we have to do is put the stuffing in. We won't use the Ghost Lock Foam, of course; instead, we're going to build a plastic melting kiln with instructions off the internet. The ectoplasmic blasts are for display; you can slide them off if your kid wants to take the doll to bed. See? Bearbert's helping us out, he's our model. Like Fabio. With fur."

Jazz was actually impressed. "You might be onto something, Danny. Most of the girls at school would want one."

"Not to mention Paulina," Sam said with equal parts disdain and mirth.

"And Dash," Tucker added with a sickly amused look. It was disturbing to the kids to know that Casper High's quarterback-slash-top bully was an avid collector of stuffed bears.

Danny grimaced at the thought of Dash curling up with a bear of his alter-ego. "Please don't remind me. I'm going to need enough therapy as it is later in life. At least I'll have a psychologist in the family."

"Oh, like you listen to me now." Jazz frowned as a thought occurred to her. "But wait; wouldn't it be, you know, risky selling these yourself?"

"Already got it covered. We've made a deal with the comic shop for them to display a few bears for us. After that, we can sell more online. See? Easy money."

Jazz grinned as she aimed Bearbert's paws at Danny. "Right on target, little bro. Maybe you're becoming more responsible."

"Or greedy," Sam suggested.

Danny held his hands up in protest. "Hey, don't forget you're our first confirmed order, Sam." Sam blushed lightly; as a practicing Goth, most stuffed animals were a faux pas unless fake blood was involved. "Besides, with my grades I'll need all the help I can get; you know my GPA would be better if I had less... extracurricular activities to deal with. "

Jazz had to concede that point. Danny was in many ways one of the brightest kids at their school but his intelligence and wits weren't as apparent in academia as they were on the battlefield. Even though Danny looked like a normal fourteen-year-old boy, he was actually a real-life superhero named Danny Phantom. When Danny was caught inside one of their parent's inventions, a "Ghost Portal," his genetic structure was bonded with ectoplasm to make him a half-human, half-ghost.

With powers such as flight, invisibility, intangibility, and energy blasts he had privately fought battle after battle against destructive spirits with only Sam and Tucker beside him until Jazz discovered his true identity. She had kept it a secret from everyone, even her parents and initially Danny himself until she became an honorary member of Team Phantom.

Though they battled in a manner befitting their familial stations, Jazz loved her brother dearly. She knew he suffered for the good of others, and she tried to ease his burden whenever possible. Still, there were limits to her patience. "As happy as I am that you're showing signs of growing up, I'm still going to kill you when we get to Heatherfield."

Danny smirked. "You can try."

Sam seemed to consider Danny's bravado and turned to Tucker. "I'll change mine to forty-five seconds."

"I say thirty-five."

"You guys are so off my buddy list," Danny growled at them

"Ah hah!" Jack shouted from the front. With Jack, this could have meant he'd either thought of a new ghost-fighting invention or finished his drink without spilling it. As it turned out it was neither, and Jack actually spilled his drink as he "Ah-hah"ed!" "Front and center, kids, we're coming up on Heatherfield!"

The teens leaned out of their seats for a better view out of the Fenton RV's massive windshield. The hill they were rounding was given to a view of a modern yet homey city where high-rise buildings lay a few blocks from residential homes. A large suspension bridge could be seen crossing the river and connecting the older neighborhoods with the ultra-modern downtown, a symbolic architectural statement linking the past with the future. Boats floated lazily in the harbor like massive sea-creatures come to rest in the peaceful waters. Though the Fentons had been to several large cities, they had never seen one quite like Heatherfield; this was true in more ways than one, as Danny and his friends would soon discover.

As he marveled at the fact that a cityscape could be so inviting and warm, Danny had a weird feeling that was reminiscent of his Ghost Sense, a power he possessed that allowed him to detect his spectral foes. When he looked at Heatherfield, he was reminded of his hometown of Amity Park. Which was odd, because Amity Park was famous only for the aggressive hauntings visited upon it; Heatherfield was so normal it was considered boring by the travel website Danny had went to when he learned of the convention trip.

Even as he tried to dismiss his instincts, he found he could not argue with every cell in his body telling him to be on guard. Something about Heatherfield was very different. Confused but focused, Danny's face set in a hard line of determination that seemed out-of-place on a fourteen-year-old's face. Whatever it was, he was Danny Phantom, and he was ready for it.

He was unaware that Jazz was watching him, similarly confused but also sure that Danny could handle himself whatever it was. She looked at Bearbert Phantom and smiled as she realized that no matter how much he had changed, he was still her annoying little brother.

And she was going to kill him when the RV stopped. In ten seconds flat.

---

Annoying little cousins were marginally better than annoying little brothers if only because you didn't have to live with them, barring mitigating circumstances. Examples of these horrible circumstances include: natural disasters, bankruptcy, alien invasions...

Summer vacation road trips with your grandpa. Which wasn't such a bad circumstance as long as the aforementioned annoying little cousin wasn't brought along. If "it" was...

"You... are... dead!" Gwen Tennyson said as she chased her younger cousin Ben around the inside of their grandfather's RV. Considering the limited space the pursuit was happening in, the little monster was being particularly evasive. Quite a feat, considering he was wearing one of her sun dresses and covered in slippery pickle juice.

"I can explain everything!" Ben Tennyson said as he scrambled onto the table in the kitchen area. Gwen glared up at him, her hands held out to her sides and fingers twitching like a gunslinger in Grandpa Max's old movies. She didn't know why Ben had her dress on and really didn't care to know. Most likely it was one of his pranks he liked to pull on her; she hoped it was one of his pranks. "This is not what it looks like!"

"Oh, I hope it isn't! I'm actually hoping this was some stupid prank!" Gwen said as she lunged at him. Ben leapt to the side and slid across the linoleum floor on dill pickle juice-coated sneakers as he made for the bathroom. Gwen followed, skidding a little on the pickle juice herself, and reaching the door just as Ben slammed it shut. "Ben! Take off my dress and come out of there right now!"

"Not yet!" Ben said from inside his sanctuary.

"Why? What are you doing in there?"

"Experimenting!" he said gleefully.

Gwen gulped as bad images ran through her mind. "Ben, as much as I support your right to choose an alternative lifestyle, I really wish you wouldn't use my things to do it." He was only wearing her dress, right?

"Gahhh! No! That's not what I mean... Here, I'll show you." A series of small beeps and warbles drifted through the door. Gwen recognized these particular pieces of audio and was about to start pounding on the door when a bright green light and a loud cackling noise came from inside the bathroom.

"Ben! Ben?" She opened the door expecting to see something... unearthly. Instead she saw... nothing. Not even her dress. "Ben? Ben, are you the little guy again?" She slowly brushed aside the shower curtains. No Ben. She looked under the toilet. Eewww... no Ben, though.

Gwen rose and scratched her head. If she (god forbid) were the dorkface, where would...

Her eyes widened as she glanced upward, just in time for a small gray creature dropped onto her face and latched onto. Gwen screamed instinctively and clawed at the creature as it traversed her face like a set of monkey bars, laughing in a tiny high-pitched voice. She stumbled out of the bathroom and nearly slipped on the pickle juice, all the while shouting words young ladies shouldn't say.

Gwen finally got a hold of it and held the tiny thing upside down an arm's length in front of her. Its large eyes shone mischievously as it grinned at her with needle-sharp teeth. Its T-shaped head was as large as its body and narrow limbs combined. Whereas the last time Gwen had seen it was wearing a black-and-white jumpsuit, the garment was now a bright and cheery yellow.

The same color as her sun dress.

"This is what you wore the dress for?" she asked the frog-like creature.

"Just wanted to see if I could modify the costume a little," it answered in a snooty tone. "I've been working on some ideas... a logo perhaps."

"But why my dress? My favorite dress?"

That little mouth widened slightly in an inhuman grin. "In case something went horribly wrong. Didn't want any of my clothes to get dissolved. And if yours did, well... bonus points." The creature gave another high-pitched laugh.

"Why... you...if you weren't so little..." Gwen fought to keep from squeezing. "Then what was with the pickle juice?"

"Oh. Well, metamorphosis always makes me hungry. I made a sandwich and I was putting the pickles on when I heard you coming. I... kind of panicked and tried to put it back without tightening the lid properly and... you can postulate the rest."

Gwen was about to start yelling again when an older man's voice came from the door to the RV. "Gwen? Ben? Are you kids in here?" Their grandfather Max Tennyson poked his head in the door. "Is that... pickles I smell?"

"It's all Ben's fault!" Gwen proclaimed as she shoved the yellow-clad creature in Max's face.

Max, knowing his eyes were not as good as they used to be, leaned close and examined the being. "Something seems different about this one..."

The creature, which was actually Ben, gave a chittering chuckle. "I'm trying out a new look. Whaddaya think about the color? I know Gwen likes it!"

Gwen rolled her eyes. "He drenched my favorite sun dress in pickle juice! And he's playing around with the Omnitrix again!"

Max sighed and shook his head. "Ben, I thought we had agreed to only use the watch for practice purposes. You remember what happened in D.C.?"

Ben gave an upside-down shrug. "This is practice, Grandpa. I'm going to repair my Game Boy while I'm Grey Matter. I just wanted to try and change the costume while I was at it. If you'll excuse me..." He wiggled out of Gwen's grasp and dropped to the floor lightly, twisting in midair to land on his feet. He then scampered over to his travel bag and hopped inside; a few seconds of shuffling later he climbed out with the portable device and began to unscrew its panels with what looked like a paper clip. Within ten seconds the Game Boy was a mess of circuits and components spread across the floor, Ben working with the device's innards like he'd been trained since day one to do so.

Max and Gwen watched the small creature that was their relation with no small amount of wonder. Ben's daily transformations into alien creatures had become routine, yet they would never get entirely used to it. When Ben had found a meteorite that was actually an alien probe, he had also found a watch-like device that attached to his wrist.

This watch, which they had learned was called an Omnitrix, allowed Ben to change into over ten different alien forms with varying abilities and superpowers; the one he was using now he called Grey Matter and possessed big-time technological genius in a small package. Other forms were super-strong or super-fast or swam underwater or flew; the alien that told them what it was had called the Omnitrix the most powerful weapon in the Galaxy.

As far as Gwen was concerned, anything that could change Ben Tennyson into a superhero was a force to be reckoned with. They had battled everything from shape shifting aliens to bounty hunters to a mad scientist on their summer vacation so far. The watch seemed to attract trouble, indirectly or directly.

Not that they were bummed out about it; what's a cooler thing to do on a summer vacation than being a superhero? Even Grandpa Max seemed to be having a good time, their constant adventures reminiscent of his days as an alien-fighting secret agent. The kids had only recently found out about Max's secret profession and Gwen suspected that there had to be a lot more to discover about their grandfather.

"So, grandpa, how long until we reach Heatherfield?" she asked. Having visited places like Washington D.C. and New York on their trip, a place like Heatherfield was not what Gwen would have imagined to be a priority stop. It had turned out that Grandpa Max had an old friend that lived there and they would be meeting some more friends and their grandkids for what he called, "a regular jamboree of young and old."

Ben had said it was the lamest thing he had ever heard of (just to Gwen, of course.) In his own mind, these kids were already boring; one of the unpleasant side-effects of the Omnitrix was his inflated ego. There were many times that Gwen wished she had been the one to find the watch; Ben was so immature she couldn't believe they were sharing DNA strands.

It didn't help that they looked similar enough to each other to be siblings; besides their light green eyes they shared enough features that more than a few people had thought they were brother and sister. One nice old lady with terrible eyesight had thought they were fraternal twins. Gwen still got shivers at the thought of sharing a womb with Ben.

Gwen purged those horrible thoughts and refocused on her grandpa. Max looked thoughtful, his internal G.P.S. ticking off miles. "I'd say... about an hour. As soon as Ben reverts get him to clean up the pickle juice and we'll be off. I'm going to call ahead and let Yan know we're coming. She promised to fix us a special dinner when we arrived, but with tourist season and all she'll probably be too busy."

Gwen smiled slyly. "Fixing you a special dinner, Grampa? Is she an old girlfriend or something?"

Max blushed and laughed shakily. "Well, we had a few... you know what, I'd better call ahead. Make sure Ben cleans up when he's done." Max left the RV to search for better cell phone reception and to get away from Gwen's observant gaze. "Oh, and see if he can fix the toaster while he's at it."

When he was gone, Gwen pondered this little tidbit of intelligence. If this Yan Lin was an old squeeze of Gramps, she might have vital information on Max's early days. Gwen had already done some digging on Heatherfield itself and it looked like a fairly nice place, despite some strange rumors.

Even as she pored over the accounts, Gwen had a bad feeling that they were walking into another weird-fest; she had shown the reports to Grandpa Max but he had shrugged and said, "There's nothing to worry about. I've been to Heatherfield lots of times and never saw anything dangerous. Besides, it's not like we haven't handled unusual things before."

Gwen could agree that they had been through some pretty dangerous situations over the last few weeks. Mostly due to the Omnitrix, but sometimes just because they were in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time. Well, if Heatherfield was serving out weirdness like some local dish, Ben could probably handle it.

Ben could handle it. Famous last words if Gwen had ever heard any. At least she hadn't said it aloud. Feeling a tug on her pants leg, she looked down and saw Ben holding her jeans with one minute hand. "Hey, freak."

It was a sign of Ben's unfailing (and unreasonable) belief in himself that he insulted someone ten times his size. Gwen glared at him as she inquired, "What's your deal, little cousin?"

Ben, no surprise, didn't take the hint. "Can I ask you something?"

Gwen raised an eyebrow. Ben rarely asked her for anything. "What?"

Ben turned and stuck his yellow rear end up at her. "Does this make my butt look big, like yours?"

She was tempted. She could kick him across the RV like a hackey sack.

But, she was the mature one. It was a shame, though, because he'd never see it coming.

---

"You know, we really should have seen this coming."

Wilhelmina "Will" Vandom looked over at her best friend Hay Lin. "I know, I just... I didn't think they'd do a series about it!" she replied as she blew her slightly messy crimson hair out of her face. They were sitting in Will's living room watching television with their other best friends while her mom was out. Will, Irma Lair, Taranee Cook, Cornelia Hale and Hay Lin looked like your average, every day barely-teenaged girls. And they were, technically.

But were also magical warriors chosen to defend Earth and countless other worlds from being invaded by dark forces. They were the Guardians of the Infinite Dimensions, formerly of the Veil and also known as W.I.T.C.H., their weapons the elements themselves and their struggle a secret one.

Unfortunately, current events could possibly change that. As the Keeper of the Heart of Candracar, the mystical crystal that gave them their powers, Will was their leader and felt that she bore if not the blame for the crisis, then at least the responsibility for figuring a way out of it. So far, nada. "I just don't know what I should have done differently."

Hay Lin held her hands up defensively at Will's comments. "Hey, I'm not saying its your fault! I'm just saying that with all the stuff that went down last year people were bound to notice."

"Yeah, but so much publicity? This could be very bad."

"You ain't kidding." Irma said. "We're not even going to get paid royalties for this."

Cornelia looked up from where she was inspecting her long blonde hair for non-existent split ends. "I think having a check mailed to us would spoil the whole "secret identity" concept, Irma."

"I know, I know. I was just kidding. I thought we had established that I was the joker in this little group?"

Taranee laughed as she retied the single braid that hung off her left temple. "I think we all qualify for jokers, Irma, but you are the funniest."

Irma smirked proudly. "When the Heart of Candracar picked us to save the world, it must have thought that having a sense of humor was vital."

"I can't believe it," Will said. Irma thought she was talking about her comment about Guardian qualifications, but their leader was actually looking at the TV. "How on Earth did they know what we looked like?"

Hay Lin squinted at the screen. "It's not that good a likeness. The one that's supposed to be me looks like a total ditz. And the costumes are way off, especially the one that's Cornelia. And Will, you've... well... she's ahhhhhh..."

"I know, she's got a bigger chest. Thanks for reminding me." Will hung her head, her short hair symbolically falling like a red curtain over her face. "All I want to know is, when? Was it in the theater the night the Tracker wrecked the town? Was it when we, well, attacked Dean, er, Mr. Collins? When we ran around during the Star of Threbe thing? I thought we convinced everyone at the Halloween carnival that it was smoke and mirrors...""

Cornelia shook her head. "Does it matter? Look, maybe we should just not transform on Earth any more. We can powers practice in Meridian, right? And I'm not just using this as an excuse to visit Elyon; it might be the best idea until this dies down."

"I don't think it is going to die down, Cornelia," Taranee said, running her hand over her short black hair and tugging absent-mindedly on her finished braid. "They're already talking about merchandising: dolls, key chains, video games, plushies..."

"Ooh, a Hay Lin plushie!" The other girls looked at Hay Lin in disbelief. "Well, I'd like one..."

Will pointed at the screen. "You just might get it. I can't believe the Guardians are on..." Will made a face as if the very words made her nauseous.

"...the twelve o'clock news!"

Sure enough, the anchor person was telling them (and most of Heatherfield) about the rumors of flying girls in green and purple costumes that had surfaced in recent months. Even though the talking head on the program was grinning like he thought this was the biggest joke he'd ever reported, the girls were not fooling themselves into thinking no one else took it seriously.

For the last week of school the scuttlebutt around the halls of their school, Sheffield Institute, had been consumed by what people were now calling Heatherfield's Loch Ness Monster. Or, more accurately, the "Heatherfield Fairies." Everyone had a theory, and though none were close to guessing the truth, the girls were made a little more anxious every time someone said, "Hey! I bet they're..." sitting right next to us.

Naturally, most people thought they were aliens; the girls had honestly laughed at this in relief. The second most popular theory was government experiments that had escaped from the new high-tech lab that had been built nearby; again they giggled at the idea. Then Uriah, the school's biggest troublemaker, had told everyone that he was certain that the girls were connected to the giant snake-man that he had "bravely fought off" when he and his gang broke into city hall. They had laughed with the rest of the class but inside their stomachs had become twisted with worry. The snake man was familiar to the Guardians, alright; like cobras were to mongooses.

On top of that Martin Tubbs, Irma's persistent and pesky admirer, had vowed to get photos for the school paper and dedicate them to his "Angel of Love." The "Angel of Love' being Irma, of course. Immediately after this Irma had nearly changed her unwanted title to "Angel of Death" had Will and Cornelia not held her back. While Martin generally wasn't the Guardians' biggest concern, his persistence (especially where Irma was concerned) was legendary. Not to mention slightly disturbing.

The last thing they wanted was Martin to get a lucky shot of them somehow. Irma would probably have to agree to marry the boy to keep those photos out of the papers. This was Plan B for Irma; the others had warned her that Plan A could result in life imprisonment if successful. Irma had sarcastically asked if Plan B wouldn't have the same result.

"What I don't get," Irma said, suddenly serious, "is how far this has gotten. I mean, there's no photos, no videos... I have a camera-phone for crying out loud, and this whole fracas is being based on a few eyewitnesses that really didn't see anything. How could this have become so big so fast?"

"Well," Taranee said, slipping into Lecture Mode. "Paranormal activity is becoming more popular in the media. Just the other day I heard about dragon sightings in New York..."

"Hey! I know someone in New York!" Hay Lin slapped her hand over her mouth and gave a muffled, "Oh, sorry!" for interrupting Taranee.

"No problem. Like I said, there's a trend going on about the supernatural. It probably has to do with the progress science is making; it's taking all the mystery out of life. So, sightings like these are getting more coverage than they would have. And things that people once thought were impossible are happening all the time nowadays. I mean, a few months ago they proved that ghosts exist, alien sightings are popping up everywhere and a year-and-a-half ago we didn't think that we were any different from other girls." W.I.C.H. nodded and made affirmative sounds; your whole perspective on life could change in a single afternoon.

Hay Lin scratched her head. "Speaking of ghosts, wasn't there a town in the Midwest that got really haunted?"

Will nodded. "Yeah, I heard about that place. Some of the stories seemed pretty out there, like the whole town getting sucked up into another dimension. Well, out there to everybody else. To us, that would be a bad Monday. Actually, my mom has some friends coming to visit that live there..."

Hay Lin's eyes lit up. "I remember now! It was Amity Park! And the ghost boy's name was Manny Phantom!"

Will actually laughed in spite of her mood. "Danny Phantom, Hay Lin. They called him Inviso-Bill until he corrected them."

"Oooooh," Cornelia cooed. "Aren't we informed about the Ghost Boy?"

Will's face flushed red. "What? I have a boyfriend, remember? Excuse me for knowing... something." The other girls smirked at each other knowingly. "I disown you. I disown you all." They laughed at her feeble attempt at sternness.

Actually, Will was something of a fan of Phantom's. Alright, so she was a hardcore fan. She had seen photos of the ghost kid on the news and thought he looked very cool with his snow-white hair and black uniform. While studying up on superheroes on the internet she ended up running searches for anything she could find about "Danny" and even printed off a poster for her locker. The photo was one of the few times Phantom had actually posed for a photographer; he was leaning against a brick wall with his arms crossed and grinning at the camera in a confident manner with those pretty green eyes.

Will found herself grinning back at him whenever she had to get a book. Of course, most of her locker was taken up by pictures of the other Guardians, her mom and, of course, Will's own boyfriend Matt Olsen. Phantom had his place just as the others did, as an idol but not an actual romantic interest. Even Cornelia still had her posters of teen singer/actor Vance Michael Justin despite having dated her own boyfriend Caleb for some time now (the other Guardians counted their Phobos-era feuds as "dating" even if they did not).

One of the powers Will possessed as the Guardian of Quintessence, or the element of life, was the ability to animate electrical devices complete with their own personalities. As such, George (her computer) and Linda (her printer) had commented on her fascination with Phantom. George was mildly disapproving of what he saw as a "young punk" while Linda was much more understanding and had even commented on how cute the Ghost Boy was.

If a Hewlet-Packard printer thought Phantom was good-looking, the kid really had something.

Will didn't guy-watch much since hooking up with Matt and would never ever betray him, but there was a certain appeal to meeting another teen superhero she couldn't deny. What would it be like to meet someone outside their circle that really understood the lifestyle? Matt and their Caleb helped out a lot on missions but their involvement was voluntary and Matt's Shagon persona still gave her the creeps whenever he transformed. Besides, Caleb was all about duty and Matt got a kick out of being a Regent of Earth; Will had never had a say in her being chosen as a Guardian. Though the other girls felt the same at times, but it wouldn't be good idea for their leader to admit how disoriented she felt. But if she could just talk to him, just once...

Did Danny have a choice in being a hero? Would he understand how confused Will sometimes felt as to why she was who she was? Irma's gentle snort brought her back to reality. "'Inviso-Bill'? Huh, it's got a ring to it, but I like Phantom better."

"I saw that picture you have of him in your locker, Will," Cornelia said with a devious look. "He is pretty cute... no wonder impressionable young ladies like our leader are getting interested in ghosts." Will, caught without a retort, stuck her tongue out at Cornelia.

There was brief chuckle session before Taranee chimed in. "Also, Heatherfield is hosting that paranormal convention this week. That's got a lot of people in the X-Files mind set."

"Do you guys want to go?" Hay Lin asked. "It could be fun!"

Cornelia scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Even if it was interesting, I get enough 'freaky' in my diet already. Now, give a non-paranormal convention, and I'm there." Plus, she planned to spend the weekend with Caleb. Not a lot of things promised to be as fun as that.

Irma shrugged. "I guess I could go. It is summer vacation after all. I just hope Martin's not there; silly me, it's a weirdness convention, of course he'll be there. He's probably a guest speaker, if not an exhibit." Though Irma was (reluctantly) fond of Martin as a friend, the nerdy boy was the paragon of his species of Homo Geekius. "I've got him under control now, more or less, but the last thing I want is for him to corner me on his home-turf."

Taranee, though, was as enthusiastic as Hay Lin about the convention. "You can count me in! I can't wait to see some of the equipment they'll have! Will?"

"Wellll..." Will thought for a second. "If it's not on the day I have dinner with Matt's parents, I'm in. I have to make a better impression than I did the first six times; I ran off the first, got sick on the second, and the third... ugh..."

Hay Lin placed a hand on her shoulder. "Aw, come on, you couldn't have known Matt's dad was allergic to walnuts. You know now, right?"

"Yeah, and so does the ER unit at Heatherfield General. Darn it! I just know they think I'm some sort of... of..."

"Floozy trying to ride Matt's coattails to fame and fortune?" Irma offered. "Listen, babe, if they can't deal with you, forget'em."

Will's face dropped. "That's just it; I can't forget them. Matt's real tight with both his folks, like you guys are." Like I'm not, she thought. "And I don't want Matt to choose between them and me if they don't like me. If his parents don't warm up to me I may have to..."

Cornelia narrowed her eyes at Will. "Please tell me you wouldn't break up with him because the parental units are stuffy about who he dates?" The others looked at Will in expectation, their concerns about exposure forgotten for the moment. One of their own was facing a man crisis, and some things took priority.

"I... I don't want to but... I thought it would be easier when things calmed down, you know? I forgot that regular life is so hard. I thought that it felt like that because of our Guardian duties but now..."

Will blew out a breath. "Okay, you how unsure we were at the beginning? I could barely fly straight but as time passed I grew into it, we all did. And since Nerissa we've dealt with a few serious things but nothing that lasted too long. And it's been great, mostly because of Matt and how much better I'm doing in school but... it's hard to think of myself as just Will, you know? I'm trying to impress his parents but there is no way I can go on about how we broke into Cavigor prison, can I?"

"So you're saying," Taranee said, "that the only thing you feel proud about is being a Guardian? Will..."

"I guess. I mean, we spend as much time as possible practicing and we're still getting better; I'm proud of us, but there's nothing else for me to hold up for them to see. Take away the Heart and I'm a fairly good swimmer; that's it. I get the vibe from Matt's parents that I'm not good enough for him."

"Well, that's ridiculous," Hay Lin said. "They don't know you like we do..."

"That's my point! No one but you guys and Mrs. Lin knows what I really do. Not even Mom knows the real me, at least not entirely. It's... it's the secrecy that's killing me. Being a Guardian is the most important part of my life and I can count the number of people on Earth that know about it on both hands and still have fingers left over. That's six billion people who have no idea who I am."

"But Matt knows," Taranee urged. Matt had stumbled along their secret last winter and was very understanding about Will's responsibilities; the girls were pretty sure he was even more enamored of Will after he found out. What guy wouldn't want to date a superheroine? Especially one that morphed into a sixteen-year-old version of herself?

"But his parents don't. His friends don't. And they don't see what I work and sacrifice for and they think I'm just a lazy girl who, like Irma said, wants to latch onto a good-looking, talented guy." Will sprawled out on the couch and stared dejectedly at the sports scores onscreen.

Cornelia stroked Will's hair comfortingly. "This is really bothering you, isn't it?"

Irma took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "You'd think they'd have a manual or something for us. 'Guardians for Idiots: What Not To Do When Saving The World.'" Will smirked a little at that.

"Maybe you could talk to Grandma..." Hay Lin offered. It was what she did whenever she had a problem.

"I did." Will growled in frustration; Irma, not easily intimidated by anyone, actually snatched her hand back. "She told me to, 'Seek the opinions that truly matter.' Aarrgh! The opinions that matter think I'm a leech! I swear, Hay Lin, I think she enjoys yanking me around. No," she quickly amended, "I didn't mean that. I just need a straight answer for once, not on how to save the world, just..." Words failed her.

Words weren't necessary, though. Each of the other Guardians could feel her frustration in their hearts. It was one of the perks of Guardianship, ranking higher than even flying: you were never really alone. Will could feel their support in her "hearts" and for a moment they were still, almost in communion. Will broke the silence with a grateful smile. "Thanks, you guys. It's sort of funny; I spent all that time dreaming about Matt and not once did I stop to think about his family. At least his grandfather likes me."

"Maybe we should stop our practices altogether for a time," Cornelia suggested. "Surely we're good enough by now to take a break. You can take the time to soften up the parents and score some points while the rest of us cool it."

"And you make out with Caleb?" Irma said not-so-innocently. Cornelia went from stroking Will's mop-top to grabbing at Irma across their friend. Will laughed and pitched forward off the couch as Cornelia and Irma armed themselves with throw pillows and went to beating the crud out of each other with reckless abandon and shrieks. This was their usual way of dealing with arguments. Taranee and Hay Lin raised their weapons and picked a target; Hay Lin took Irma and Taranee, after setting her glasses aside, attacked Cornelia with unusual ferocity.

As Will grabbed a pillow and joined in, she seriously considered the possibility. Well, not Cornelia making out with Caleb; that was a given. But maybe all she needed was some time off. After all, it was summer vacation.

---

"But Grandpa, it's summer vacation!" Jake Long had protested. Whined, actually. Jake felt he could have been excused since traveling all the way across the country to train with some mystic in a city he'd not been to since he was six was a perfectly sound situation for some serious complaining. That, and his head was still pounding from the earful he'd gotten from a banshee on Broadway.

Lao Shi hadn't agreed. Surprise, surprise. "Jake, as the American Dragon you must always be training yourself to attain the next level. Yan Lin is one of the foremost experts in magic in this hemisphere; to be accepted as her apprentice is a great honor."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Gramps, but why can't she come here? We could put her up at my house, or maybe the shop..."

"Jake, the shop is no place for someone of Yan Lin's stature!"

"She ain't that tall, G." Taller than Lao Shi, anyway.

Lao Shi had shook his head, not so much a negative response as an impatient one. "Jake, the student must make the journey to the teacher; that shows his commitment to his training. Plus, she has a business to run. It is only for a month, Jake; we cannot afford to be away from our territory for too long. Sun Park will watch over New York while we are away, but you must learn what you have to learn and quickly. Every magical creature in New York-and perhaps the world- depends on your abilities."

No pressure, Gramps. And that had been that. After a long flight and a frantic chase through the airport involving a certain Shar Pei and some hairless cat, they were off on a train ride to Heatherfield, the home of Yan Lin, the great and powerful. Jake was little bummed about being away from his "territory" and was actually worried about the creatures in his care. Still, he wasn't too down about heading to this particular city.

Jake had dim recollections of the prior visit some years ago when he was traveling with his grandfather. This was before Jake had learned of his dragon heritage and thought Grandpa was just a stoic old man. Gramps had later revealed that the whole trip was secret Dragon Council business, but all Jake remembered was his grandfather hamming it up with Mrs. Lin and talking about good ole days before running water and electricity.

Not that Jake hadn't enjoyed the trip himself. Heatherfield was a great place, close enough to New York City to make him feel comfortable yet different enough to be a new experience. But what really made the whole trip worthwhile was Yan Lin's granddaughter, Hay.

The first time he'd met her, she had come stumbling down the stairs of her family's restaurant with her girl friend, both of them dressed up like drag queens. They wore garishly bright boas (blue in Hay Lin's case; Jake could barely remember what her friend looked like), had red lips with way too much lipstick and shoes ten sizes bigger than their feet. Hay Lin's hair was done up in pigtails and when she smiled her she resembled a crazed clown. With horns.

Jake had been absolutely terrified of her. Grandpa had told him about it on the flight to LAX and laughed as he recalled Jake ducking behind him saying, "Don't let her get me, Grandpa! Please!"

Jake was pretty sure he didn't say, "Please!"

Later, when Hay Lin had washed the makeup off and dressed in her normal clothes, Jake had been a little more relaxed around her. Hay Lin had bombarded him with questions about New York, most of which he couldn't answer but she didn't care. And neither did he; there was something about that girl that attracted him to her. She was a ball of energy, even more so than most kids their age. She wasn't annoying but refreshing, like she was tapped into some power source and radiating it out to everyone like a sun.

The week they spend playing in the snow and sneaking around the restaurant was memorable in every sense of the word. Jake could still smell the food as he and Hay Lin snuck past the chefs to swipe fortune cookies. He could feel the cold wind as he single-handedly took on Hay and her tomboy-ish friend Irmie in a snowball fight (and single-handedly lost, too). He heard the crunch of snow as he chased her in a game of tag; she was so fast it was like chasing the wind. He could remember the warmth of her hand as she dragged her from adventure to adventure; those few moments when he held her hand he knew, just knew, that she was the girl he was going to marry.

Never mind he thought girls were disgusting creatures back then; Hay Lin was something more than a mere mortal in his eyes. Jake chalked this up to his imagination, not realizing he had imagined himself to be a dragon and flew around his parent's apartment breathing "fire" on several occasions when he was younger. He had eventually adopted a red dragon as his totem like primitive tribes had with animal spirits, adorning his skateboard and possessions with the symbol. He and Hay Lin had even pretended to be dragons themselves when they saw their breaths in the cold air. Jake had been a little irked when he realized that she could blow bigger "fire breaths" than he could. Pretty dang big ones, too.

And then the week was up. And Jake had been as strong as he could when Hay held onto him and cried as he prepared to leave. Jake had asked Grandpa if they could take her with them or leave him here; he had smiled sadly and said, "Her destiny lies here, Jake. Yours is with your family, in our city. But you will meet again, I'm sure of it."

Jake hadn't questioned his grandparent's wisdom then; it was the only comfort he could give Hay and himself. Too young to write, they had promised to think of each other often. As their taxi pulled away, Jake had seen her looking out of a window of the restaurant. He had waved; he hadn't seen her respond, but he knew she had.

Jake had kept the promise as best as he could over the years. It wasn't that hard; the days he'd spent with Hay Lin had been good, and he looked back on them whenever he had a need to think of better times. Then, as Jake began to realize he could track down Hay Lin and email her things happened that served to keep him distracted.

The most prominent event was discovering he was part-dragon and was able to shape-shift into an seven-foot-long winged, fire-breathing reptile after a little practice. This was kinda cool, actually.

The second thing he discovered was not so cool. He was the American Dragon, caps and all, appointed by a council he had never met to defend the magical creatures of New York City from evil forces; primarily from the Huntsclan, a group of supernatural hunters with a serious hate on against all magical beings.

A third event was Rose, a girl as different from Hay Lin as night was to day but shared something in common with her: they quickly became the focus of Jake's whole world. Unfortunately, Jake had discovered that Rose was the adopted daughter of the head of the Huntsclan and believed she was destined to kill a red dragon. This had not boded well for the relationship.

And yet somehow they managed, eventually joining forces to end the Huntsclan once and for all. Rose had even seen him off at the airport and planted a kiss on him so freaking sweet Jake had to be carted to his plane on their luggage. At least he could keep in contact with Rose at night with their dream charms. Of course, his lady had limited their visits during Jake's training so as to not tire him out. That had bummed Jake out a little, but it also felt good that Rose was thinking of him like that. It seemed, well, a serious and mature thing to do; this did bode well for the relationship.

Jake was now beginning to feel his way into his role as the American Dragon; his record wasn't perfect but it was improving, having survived numerous encounters with the Huntsclan and a few close-ones with the even more dangerous Dark Dragon, the Darth Vader of his race.

Jake knew that it wasn't all him; his grandfather helped, of course, as did his friends Spud and Trixie once they discovered (and accepted) his secret. His mom and little sister gave what support they could (his dad, great guy and all, was in the dark about what kind of family he married into), and of course there was Fu Dog, who passed down his centuries of experience to Jake in dealing with the magical side of the world.

At the moment, though, Fu was dispensing complaints instead of wisdom. Jake sympathized with him; if he was stuck in an overhead compartment, he'd be complaining, too.

"This is outrageous!" Fu hissed through the plastic panels. "Someone call the Humane Society, I'm being abused here!"

Jake looked around the nearly empty train car to see if anyone else had heard. The closest person was six seats away and listening to an MP3 player. Jake sighed and lifted his eyes upward, both looking at where Fu was and beseeching a higher power to shut the six-hundred-year-old dog up. "Fu, keep it down!" he whispered sharply at the overhead. "We got another hour to go; try to take a nap or something."

"Take a nap? In this thing? I'll have more room in my grave when it's my time! And this lame music is driving me nuts, it's gotta be against the Geneva Convention! Forget the Society, call the UN!" Fu was referring to the ambient music being piped in through overhead speakers; it sounded like elevator music but without the production values.

Jake looked over at his Gramps for help and saw that the older dragon was asleep. Thanks, G. It looked like Jake was going to have to deal with this on his own.

"McGruff giving you lip again?" asked a sharp feminine voice beside him. Or not.

Jake smiled as he looked across the aisle at his best friends in the world. Besides seeing Hay Lin again, one of the consolations was bringing Trixie and Spud along for the trip. Even if he got worked like a dog, he knew they'd drag him away when it was done. "Can't really blame him. This train line's real strict about pets..." A harumph came from the overhead. "Got any ideas, Trix?"

Trix thought for a second. As a self-reliant urbanite girl with serious sarcasm skills, Trixie was one of the fastest thinkers Jake had ever met, maybe even faster than Jake himself. "Maybe he just needs some reading material. Spud, you got that reading light of yours still?"

If Trixie was yin fast, Spud was her yang slow. While Spud was his bro, Jake knew he wasn't the thinker of their group, despite his acing IQ tests left and right. Occasionally, though, the guy would stumble along something neither of the other two would have thought of; Spud's far out way of thinking was as much an asset as it was freaking hilarious. "Yeah, got it right here. But I don't use it for reading; I keep it in case of solar eclipse so I can find my face in an emergency." There you go; pure Spud. Spud handed the light to Jake.

Trixie was used to the Spud's weirdness by now and didn't bat an eye at the comment. "Jake, what's Fu dig on paper?"

"Well, gambling for one. He reads SI and Wall Street, too."

Trixie rummaged through a stack of magazines the train provided for commuters; Spud had snatched every book for several aisles for some reason Jake didn't know and probably wouldn't understand. Trix pulled out several Sports Illustrateds, a horse racing magazine, and a dog show serial that Jake snatched away and mouthed no. Trixie didn't need to know why and didn't want to know.

She handed the magazines to Jake who opened the overhead and slid them and the light in. The light clicked on as Jake closed the compartment; a "Thanks, kids," came from the receptacle and the sound of flipping pages followed. Jake sat back down. "Thanks, Trix."

"No prob, Jay. So who's this other girl that's supposed to be taking lessons from Yawning?"

"Yan Lin, Trix. I don't know, to be honest. She comes from somewhere in Cali and is supposed to be big time important."

A sly look passed over Trixie's face. "More important than the Merican-Aay Ragon-Day?"

Jake crossed his arms defensively. "Phff, nawww! Well, maybe. Grandpa's being real tight on the lid about it. Now that I'm thinking, he hasn't told the real deal on Yan Lin. She's ninth degree powerful, but her hit list is blank to me."

'She ain't a... you know?"

"I don't think so."

"Hmmm. So no chance of you and this Hay Girl building a nest?"

"Say what! Whoa, now I... I mean... that ain't..." Jake sputtered. "We don't build nests; griffins build nests. And it ain't like that, we were kids..."

Trixie chuckled. "Chill, Jake, I'm just messin' wit you. You went on and on about this girl so much I can't believe you only knew her a week. You think she's still the same after all this time?"

Jake thought for a second. "I know it sounds whack, but yeah, I do. It's... just a feeling."

"Mmmhmmm," Trixie murmured. "You know, Jake, growing up in a restaurant surrounded by all them eats... girl's probably Goodyear size by now."

"So? Don't matter to me if she is. It ain't looks that made her so unreal."

Trixie nodded. "You passed the test, Mr. Long. Now I really want to meet this girl." Trixie was absentmindedly shuffling magazines in her hands when her eyes widened. "Hey Jake, check this." She handed him a tabloid that proclaimed itself to be "The World's Most Responsible Newspaper!" "Ain't that the place we're headed?"

Jake looked at the cover story. It showed artist's renditions of five women with fairy wings that were dressed in green-and-purple outfits. The headline read, "Heatherfield Fairies" and had the tagline "Coastal city visited by large pixies! Are they angels or demons?"

Jake flipped through the magazine until he came to the story. He read aloud to Trixie. "'According to local rumor, unusual events taking place in Heatherfield, U.S.A., are the work of fairy-like beings the size of teenage girls. These inexplicable events, which include sudden floods, seismic activity, strong winds, odd lights and strange creatures, are linked only by the large amounts of property damage done without any reasonable explanation. Eyewitness accounts describe five girls dressed in matching uniforms as being at the scenes of these disturbances.

"'Also sighted with these fairies are unusual creatures ranging from a small green monkey to a large man with a glowing mace and a rabid pit bull. At Heatherfield City Hall last year, extensive damage was done to the building by, supposedly, teenaged vandals who all claimed to have seen the monkey creature working with a large half-snake, half-man being. Though no photographic evidence has been provided, various descriptions from members of the community had given a workable face to this possible menace.

Jake looked at the drawings skeptically. "'The only report of the fairy-like beings assaulting anyone is the case of a anonymous teacher, who blacked out on the way to a student's house and woke up in his apartment with his clothes ripped and soaked with water. He describes being attacked by evil fairies who accused him of being a monster. Though slightly shaken, he was not injured by the beings.

"'Several locals have surmised that the monstrous creatures and the fairies have an antagonistic relationship and the property damage is caused by battles between the two factions. The 'Tall Man' being was seen destroying numerous cars before heading into a local theater and disappearing into one of the 'lights' that have been sighted around the area. Some believe that the lights are portals to another dimension where evil beings attempt to invade Earth but are repulsed by the fairies. Also, the lights are known to disappear at varying times, perhaps because of some natural cycle or the fairies' powers..."

The rest of the article was a promise by the magazine to report on further information when discovered. Jake looked at Trixie and shrugged. "Fairies and pixies don't get that big; they get two feet maybe, but usually not human-sized. The snake guy may be a Naga or Nixx but they're not usually around this region. Maybe it's a joke?"

Trixie shrugged. "Maybe, but don't you think it's too big a coincidence all this is going down in Yawning's hometown? Uh, Yan Lin?" Best to get that down before she met the lady.

"Maybe. We'll ask Grandpa when he wakes up. Maybe there's community of m.c.'s living in Heatherfield that are acting up. In that case, the Am-Drag'll set them straight!" Jake nodded to his friends. "With a little help from his crew. You up for some action, Spudster?"

Spud looked out the window with a worried expression. "I hope the sun doesn't go out before I get it back. What if my nose gets clogged and I can't see it? If I sneeze I might knock something out of alignment." He paused as he listened to the music being piped in through the speaker next to them. "If elevator music plays on a train, does that make it train music, or is the train a long and fast side-ways elevator? Wild."

Jake and Trixie didn't know what to say to that. With Spud, no answer was sometimes the best one.

---

With Ray Ray Lee, usually the best answer was a negative one. "No, Ray Ray, I will not hang you out the window."

"Aw, come on, June," Ray Ray begged. Changing his voice from Begging to Slow Pleading , he assured her that, "I'd do it for you-oooh." The oooh part was stretched out like a mantra to charm his older sister into doing his bidding.

Juniper Kim Lee fixed her little brother with a I-Bet-You-Would stare. "Ray Ray, knock it off. The train's an hour from Heatherfield and I'd like to be ready and alert when we get there. The whole area is a focal point for extradimensional energies and elemental forces."

"Yeah, I know, but what does that mean?"

Truth be told, June didn't know exactly what it meant either; that was what Ah-Mah had said before they left. "It means, let me rest. If something pops into our plane of existence, I need to be able to pop it back."

Ray Ray sat down in his seat and pouted. "Come on, June, I've seen you fight monsters half-awake and sick as a dog..."

"I hate that saying," a Scottish-accented voice said from their overhead compartment. "Dogs are very clean creatures, you know. Cats, now there's a cesspool on four legs for ya."

June smirked. "This from a guy who runs when it's bath-time. Monroe, you are such a hypocrite."

Monroe, June's talking dog that had been in her family for generations, snorted in his traveling case. To anyone but June and Ray Ray, it would have sounded like a yip. "If you didn't scrub like a mad woman with that blasted brush... are ye trying to skin me, lass?"

"Oh, darn, you figured me out. I don't force you to take baths to keep fleas and ticks from making you sick; I do it to torture you. Curses."

"Very funny, Juniper. Don't be surprised if the water's a little warm next time, eh?"

"Do it and I will skin ya," June threatened him, bopping her fist lightly against the compartment. She didn't believe him for a second, of course. Monroe was like a grouchy but good-hearted uncle to her; he'd been with her since she was a baby and June could never tell the dog how much she cared for him. It would be too weird for both of them.

"June..." Ray Ray had switched back to his Begging voice. "Please? You're the Te Xuan Ze, the strongest magical hero in the whole world. You're like Superman but... shorter. And prettier; did I mention pretty? Prettier than Wonder Woman!"

June rolled her eyes as she fingered the magenta streak that started at her left temple and ran to the tips of her waist-length hair. Ray Ray was into his Compliment Phase; next would come the Bitter Recrimination Phase followed shortly by the Righteous Sulking Phase. Not if she cut him off at the pass. "Ray Ray, you remember last week when we got caught in the hairs of that Arakian Sandworm?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Take away the sand, and that's what it would be like to stick your head out of the train."

"...oh. Well, it was okay but..." Ray wiggled his hand back and forth, the signal for so-so. Only Ray Ray could rate being dragged several miles by a giant worm bigger than the train they were riding in as a mediocre experience. "Geez, now I'm really bored."

June sighed. You really can't win'em all. "Ah-Mah, did we have to bring Ray Ray? I thought I needed to be able to concentrate while Yan Lin is teaching me?"

June's grandmother Jasmine looked at her from across the row. She was reading a book entitled Monsters And Humanoids; to anyone else the magazine would have looked like Home and Gardens. "You worry too much, June. In Heatherfield there'll be plenty of things to distract him. Besides, the boy couldn't live without you. Right, Ray Ray?"

Ray Ray was now occupied with trying to open the window and barely heard his Ah-Mah. "Huh? Oh, yeah-yeah-she's-the-wind-beneath-my-toes-you-rock-June," he murmured distractedly.

June looked at Ah-Mah with a sardonic expression. "We're joined at the hip."

Ah-Mah shrugged. "You'll understand one day, Juney."

June leaned back in her seat and gazed at the roof of the train. "Haven't heard that one before, Ah-Mah. At least Dennis isn't here; I'd probably throw him off the train."

Juniper Lee was not your average eleven-year-old girl with annoying brothers on both ends of her family tree branch. Most families have traditions that are passed down from generation to generation; Saturday fishing trips, embarrassing family pictures, allergies, you know the drill. In June's family line, there was a tradition that was passed to one member of each generation. It wasn't voluntary, since few people would have volunteered to be the Te Xuan Ze, defender of the world from supernatural threats.

June certainly wouldn't have. But thanks to a twist of fate, she was the one picked to do the job. She wasn't happy about this at first but as time passed (and she temped her duties to a saccharine-sweet witch that nearly destroyed her hometown of Orchid Bay City) she began to realize that she kinda dug the responsibility. Like when you got your first pet and realized that it relied on you to feed it and keep it safe and you felt good knowing you were, well, the Man. Metaphorically speaking.

Granted, June had more than one pet to worry about. Ever since the world of magic had separated from the world of humans, the Te Xuan Ze had acted as the den mother (or father) for the entire magical underground by solving disputes, banishing dangerous monsters and demons and preserving the secrecy of its existence. It helped that most of it was based around her hometown, and that most magical creatures were invisible to the general populace. There were holdouts but usually they stayed hidden in places where they could blend in, like New York or Las Vegas.

It was rough on her social life, but she still had loyal friends who had come to accept her unexplained absences as best they could. Even so, telling them that she was leaving for a month on vacation hadn't been easy. June remembered the conversation all too clearly.

"An entire month?" Jody had said. The perpetually perky blonde had been devastated by the announcement. "But June, we have so many plans! The water park, the movies, the miniature golf..."

"Run, June," Ophelia had warned in her usual deadpan voice. "Run as fast as you can." The counter-culture diva had been flipping through a tattoo magazine, apparently unconcerned. June had been glad that one of her friends was taking it well. If Ophelia actually would miss her, she would never have said so anyway. It wouldn't have been Ophelia.

Roger, their male ambassador, had been the hardest hit. "Nooooooo! Don't go, June! No-ho-ho!" Alright, so he wasn't the best representative of his gender; he was still her friend. His sudden depression may have been the result of him being the only one left while the girls went on their various vacations.

"Guys," June had said, "I don't want to leave you but this is Ah-Mah Time. It's a family thing and a cultural thing." Not to mention a save-the-world thing. "If I could, I'd take you all with me, but the Lins don't have that much room. This is... it's hard to explain, but it's like learning to read the Torah, Jody. It's something I want to do, for my family." And you and everybody else I have to protect. "Besides, you've got your own trips to go on; a few weeks and you guys won't even notice I'm gone. I'll call every day, I promise. Hey, at least you'll have Lila here. Take care of her for me, alright?"

The magically disguised Bigfoot girl smiled at the thought that she needed any protecting, but decided to go along with June's ploy. "She's right, you guys. We'll be fine until June gets back. Now, who wants a pine-needle pedicure?"

They had eventually relented but refused to let her go without a fuss. One all-night movie marathon and enough junk food to feed an enlarged Rakatan was their parting gift. Bleary-eyed and sugar-buzzed, they had seen her off at the bus stop the next day; June, with her sentimental old soul, had been hard put not to bawl as she hugged Jody, who was bawling enough for both of them, and Ophelia, who didn't cry but gave her advice about not drinking tap water in big cities.

June had accepted it for what it was and shook Roger off her leg as gently as she could before boarding the Greyhound. She was relieved when the girls held him back from chasing the bus and possibly running into a telephone pole while waving at her. It wouldn't have been the first time; Roger's eyeglass prescription needed serious updating.

In the last two days she had called her parents on schedule and texted her friends some of Ray Ray's antics. To pass the time on their final leg of the journey June sat back in her chair and practiced her meditative state until she felt a rush of air blow across her face. At first she thought she had transcended her body to reach a higher level of consciousness; this was dispelled when she heard Ray Ray shout, "Ready... Aim... Fire! Hawwwkiikkk!" Not what you would expect to hear in Nirvana. She opened her eyes just as Ray Ray hawked a loogie out the open window. He was also hanging half out of the train and wiggling precariously.

"Ray Ray!" Honestly, it was like the boy had a death wish. Reaching around his flailing feet, June yanked him back in and closed the window. "Are you insane! You could have fallen out!"

Ray Ray was giggling like crazy. "Did you see how fast it went? It was like a bullet!"

"If you ever do that again, we'll see how fast you go!" June thought she heard Ah-Mah chuckle behind her. "What's so funny?"

Ah-Mah smiled at her in that way that made her look infinitely wise. "You are going to make a wonderful mother, Juniper."

June blanched at the thought of having a kid, more specifically one like Ray Ray. Note to self: get tubes tied. Surely one of her brothers could continue the family line. There were a lot of desperate women out there.

On second thought, there was no way she was going to leave the fate of the world up to a Te Xuan Ze descended from Dennis or Ray Ray. June smirked as she thought of her crush Marcus; now there was good genetic material. A small voice inside her said You are way too young to think about having kids. True, but it never hurt to plan ahead.

---

For the last twenty years he had been planning ahead, juggling multiple schemes and ploys to amass an empire for the singular purpose of domination: domination of the world, domination of his rival, and domination of the heart of the woman he loved. Not necessarily in that order. Ever since Jack "The Fool" Fenton had fired a prototype ghost portal in his face, Vlad Master, aka Vlad Plasmius, had found himself in a position of loneliness and bitter regret, forever set apart from the world and happiness. It tended to make one... anti-social.

It had taken two decades for him to be in position for him to begin to set his master plan in motion and even then there were obstacles that delayed him further, demanding more time to be dealt with. But if there was one thing Vlad Masters, the self-made billionaire and most powerful half-ghost, half-human in existence had, it was time. And lots of money to make things go faster when necessary.

What he didn't have was a certain item that would significantly cut down the countdown toward world domination. Deep within a secret laboratory he conducted experiments, ran figures, plotted hostile takeovers, and probed the depths of the universe in ways that could be charitably called "unnatural" and would most likely warrant "unholy."

He was doing all these for one singular purpose: to pass the time.

The item he so desperately needed was in fact coming closer to him every second; he just needed to wait for it to arrive. The problem was that Vlad Masters was never particularly good at waiting; thus he tried to fill his time with productive diversions to further his power and influence. Of course, even the head of a multinational corporation only has so much he can do on a daily basis. Even his ghost-related activities could only distract him so long; too many of his plans required waiting.

Plus, the Packers game wouldn't kick off til three-fifteen. Sigh. He really needed a hobby. Well, besides hating Jack Fenton. Maybe one of those internet role-playing games that were all the rage?

Vlad snorted as he continued defying the laws of man and nature. Like he had that much time to kill on a foolish game.

---

Life itself was a game. Chess, more specifically.

The man known only as Enoch moved a pawn into position to take his opponent's bishop as his subordinate reported over the limo's speaker phone. "The shipment is due to arrive in two days at the convention center. It is under heavy guard by its owner's security forces and will be the most vulnerable at the convention itself."

"Then that is where we will strike," Enoch said, the heavy gauntlet of his armor not impeding his battle on the board; he'd worn the attire of a Forever Knight so long the gold mask was more his face than the one that reminded him of his father. It was... pure, in a way, to shape the face that others see you as instead of the often incorrect mechanics of genetics and time. Beauty, and many other things, were only skin-deep. "We are divided and weak because of the Tennysons' interference. The item will give us a solid power base from which to grow. Though we may falter, we are forever; we will always begin anew."

---

BEGINNING FINAL REPAIR ROUTINE... OPERATING SYSTEM REBOOT IN 3... 2... 1...

In a gorge near Mount Rushmore a twisted hunk of metallic compounds and and high-density plastics shuddered as something moved within. The "egg" was at one time part of the flagship of the alien warlord Vilgax and was thrown clear upon the destruction of the vessel. Once a room the size of a tennis court, it was a loading bay where Locate And Terminate drones were stored until needed. Most were destroyed in the explosion (or earlier by the Tennyson family) but one unit was protected by the molten slag that used to be its peers and spared significant damage.

With a horrible screech of super-heated metal, the cocoon was ripped apart by the sheer strength of the LAT drone as it rose to its full twenty five-foot height. Rusty red as old blood and cylindrical in shape, it was a horrifying visage made worse by the superficial yet extensive damage to its exterior, The partially melted metal and the gouges in the exoskeleton made it look like the reanimated corpse that it was.

It's systems scanned the surrounding area and located nothing except a camp ground with approximately 30.45 individuals going happily about their business. No compatible ("friendly" wasn't something it could process) forces were detected, so it fell back on the line command that had been entered in all the drones after the loss of the Omnitrix. Simply put: FIND THE OMNITRIX. A scan was initiated and... successful; the device had been activated mere seconds before.

Drawing its three legs up into its chassis (one of which got stuck halfway and hung there limply) the LAT raised its gravity compensators that kept its massive bulk mobile to near weightlessness and ignited its thrusters. Within seconds it was launching toward the upper atmosphere for a long flight toward its destination. It would need to recharge en route and lengthen its travel time as a result, but impatience was, of course, not in its code.

---

He always was impatient. Whether it was trying to unlock the mysteries of magic (in retrospect, and considering the scar that ran over his eye, not a particularly good combination) or reminding people for the upteemth time that he was not Lex Luthor (the nickname of Lex had stuck, anyway), the leader of the Humans for the Abolishment of Magic (H.A.M.) was not a man to be kept waiting. Especially not when the keys to restoring his organization to prominence was almost in the palms of his mismatched hands.

And especially not by lackeys who used the bathroom one too many times during a roadtrip. Lex was about to start yelling when the last two members of his troop ran out of the gas station's bathroom and made for the three minivans the H.A.M. members were using to cross the country (an expensive bus charter was out of the question and two of the vans were borrowed). "About time! Be late again and you're walking back!"

If his two cronies were cowed by this declaration he couldn't tell through the goggle-eyes of their helmet. The thick brown armor H.A.M. tended to hide the humanity of their wearers even as the red crystals embedded in their chest-plates revealed the existence of the magical world that most of humanity was completely ignorant. The suits made them stronger, faster, more powerful than most magical beasts.

But not (and it tore him up to admit this even to himself) an eleven year-old-girl and her talking dog. When he was a kid he had always felt bad for the wicked witch of the west in the Wizard of Oz as she melted; after having his headquarters demolished by the Te Xuan Ze and her magical cohorts his sympathy had multiplied.

It was by mere luck he'd gotten word of a powerful magical artifact that would be arriving in Heatherfield tomorrow and H.A.M. (he made a mental note to change the name; how had he not noticed how lame the acronym sounded?) was on its last leg of their journey to the small city. As the minivans pulled out of the gas station with mechanical precision, Lex smiled menacingly as his twisted mind began to concoct insidious revenge against Juniper Lee.

A tap on his shoulder made him turn and stare into the face of one of his subordinates. Somehow by looking into those bug-eyed goggles he knew exactly what the man was wanting.

Lex growled. "Hold it! And if you don't, you're paying me back the security deposit!"

---

"Man, we are going to get some serious payback on that american dragon! I'm gonna be like, Bam! And, Whoo-Hah! And he's going to be like, 'Oh, please don't hurt me, 88, please!' I'm gonna be like, 'Aw, HAIL no, punk! Prepare to be slayed, son! 'Cause we got'... what we gonna get again, 89?"

"Plasma weapons," Huntsboy 89 said as he concentrated on flying their Huntsclan hovercraft towards Heatherfield. "FentonWorks has all kinds of 'em for hunting ghosts. We need even more firepower if we're going to start our own Huntsclan. Plus, the expo's going to have all kinds of stuff we can take!"

Huntsboy 88 punched the palm of his hand as he grinned. "Yeah, man, then it's on! We gonna start tonight?"

89 shook his head. "Not all of the stuff has arrived yet, so we gotta wait a day or two. Besides, I'm beat from this trip. Let's spend some time chilling until everything's set. I hear they have some great restaurants there. Sushi, Thai, Chinese..."

88 sniffed loudly. "Man, I ain't a race-hata or anything, but every time I think of 'Chinese' I see that dragon and his crew kicking our butts. Discouragin', really."

89 smiled, his buck-teeth gleaming wickedly. "Trust me, after we blast the dragons into atoms we'll celebrate with a huge buffet at the closest place that has fortune cookies."

"Yeah, awright! That's what I'm talking about!" 88 pumped his fist in the air and gave a "Whoo! Whoo!" only to hit the ejector seat switch and catapulted the two supernatural hunters' seats out of the vehicle. "Uh, my bad!" He looked down at the ground that was rising rapidly towards them. "Don't we have parachutes n these things?"

89 glared at his only friend in the world. "We did... but we used them up the last time you did this! But don't worry, I just activated the hovercraft's auto-pilot to swoop in and save us."

"Cool! I see it coming back now!" Sure enough, the vessel was heading back toward its former occupants with great speed. Great speed. "Uh, 89, it's heading right at us."

"Duh, that's 'cause..."

"No, I mean it's headed right for us!"

"Oh... oh!" 89 began pressing buttons on his ejector seat wildly. "I... think... I..."

'We're going to die!" 88 shrieked. "We're going to di-ai-aiiiii!"

Proving that something does look after idiots, 89 managed to hit the right combination of buttons and the hovercraft activated their seats' thrusters and the two ejectees were maneuvered back into the craft. The youngsters deflated in relief and gave weak chuckles at their near escape. "Man, I thought that was it! Somebody up there..."

CRASH! The hovercraft slammed into a mountain peak, causing airbags adorned with the red "H" of the Huntsclan to deploy inside the cockpit. "...hates us."

---

Author's Note: I ain't going to lie to ya: it's going to be some time before we see some fightin'. Hopefully my wit will keep you entertained til then. Yeah, I'm nervous, too. I'm going to start a forum for NTY in the Cartoon Crossover category, so be sure to check that out.

Episode References: These sections will point out gags and back-stories that come from the various series. Basically, they're descriptive disclaimers that let's you know how much I've pilfered. I won't list every reference because that would take forever, but every time the characters reminisce about a prior event that's most likely coming from their shows. Much love to Wikipedia for the reference info.

W.I.T.C.H.'s infiltration of the Cavigor prison was in the episode (fittingly named) "The Escape from Cavigor" and their Halloween "skit" was in the Season Two episode "W is for Witch". "The Star of Threbe" and "A Service to the Community" are also mentioned by Will. The Guardians trashed City Hall in the episode, "Happy Birthday, Will."

Will's poster of Danny is the last shot of the Danny Phantom title sequence right when the theme song finishes.

Ben and family learned the name of the Omnitrix in the episode, "Hunted." The LAT is my name for the robot featured in the first episode, "And Then There Were 10."

The dream charms are used in several episodes of Season 2 of "American Dragon: Jake Long."

H.A.M. lost a big battle with June and co. in the episode, "A Helping H.A.M.", placing them in dire (financial) straits.

Trivia: Just little things I also can't take credit for.

The "disturbing lack of faith" is from Star Wars: A New Hope and is voiced by Darth Vader as he chokes a subordinate, kinda like Jazz wanted to choke Danny.

The Arakian sand worm is an homage to the iconic worms of Dune. I don't really like Dune, but I dig giant worms. No pun intended.

The "government experiments" theory in the W.I.T.C.H. section is based on the Maximum Ride novels about genetically altered teenagers with feathered wings.

Who hates 88 and 89 enough to ram them into a mountain? (Raises hand.) Oh, c'mon, if anyone deserves it...